Pollinator Garden in the Outdoor Classroom

Behind my children's elementary school sits a quarter acre fenced in area of wilderness that is unlike the manicured soccer field and playground that surrounds it. At it's center is a large pond which is home to aquatic plants, fish, turtles, frogs, and crayfish. It serves as a wonderful breeding grounds for dragonfly larva and the air above it is alive with those predatory flyers during the summer. Wrapping around the pond is a boardwalk that leads to a square gazebo with wrap around seating large enough for a class of students. In one of the corners of the garden is a stand of bamboo with a curvy path ideal for stimulating the imagination of the many children who weave through it.

This "Outdoor Classroom" was established more than 20 years ago and quickly became a beacon for what an outdoor classroom could look like and how it could improve learning experiences for elementary students. Educators and administrators traveled from other schools within and beyond the school district to see what could be at their own schools. But a wild space like this requires maintenance and dedication from teachers and parents. Over the years the classroom has gone through periods of neglect and revitalization.

Last year I learned that the Oklahoma City Zoo had teamed up with the Myriad Botanical Gardens, the Oklahoma Monarch and Pollinator Collaborative, and the National Wildlife Federation to provide grants to Oklahoma City metro area schools to establish pollinator gardens on their school grounds. I reached out to the Outdoor Classroom coordinator at my children's school and she was excited to apply. Several months later we received the good news that the school had been awarded a grant and we got to planning.

Over the summer there were two all-day workshops for teachers of the schools that had received grants. The workshops covered what a pollinator garden is, why pollinators (especially Monarchs) are important and in need of dedicated habitat, how to build a successful pollinator garden, and how curriculum can be used along with the garden.

I worked with a few teachers at the school to find a suitable sunny location for our garden, cleared out some invasive (though native) Trumpet Vine, and tilled the area. With the help of one other dad at the school, I built a raised bed frame and prepared the bottom as we had been advised: one layer of water-permeable landscape fabric, a 2-3" layer of pea gravel, and another layer of landscape fabric. Next was the dirt. We were advised to not fill our garden with a rich soil with a lot of nutrients. We would be planting native prairie plants which have evolved to live in our own sandy and red clay nutrient-poor soil. These plants actually grow best in this type of medium. Marcum's Nursery generously donated fill dirt for our garden.

I made a dream list of native prairie plants that I was hoping we might be able to buy, ensuring we had a mix of nectar plants that would bloom at different times of the year (spring, summer, and fall) as well as host plants that are used by caterpillars. I was delighted to find that Prairie Wind Nursery in east Norman had all of the plants on my dream list. We purchased the plants in late September.

On a nice warm day in early October my wife and I spent the morning at the school helping kids select a plant, find it's matching tag in the prepared raised bed, and gently plant it in place. After months of planning and dreaming the garden had become a reality! I can't tell you how happy I was to see it all come together.

One classroom took on the responsibility of regular watering of the new plants through the fall while they were in their critical phase of becoming established in their new home. A few weeks later we had another work day in the garden and parents and students helped add irrigation to our pollinator garden and spruce up other areas in the Outdoor Classroom.

This spring we plan to have an open house and invite the entire community to come and see the revitalized Outdoor Classroom and the new pollinator garden. My fervent hope is that this pollinator garden grant is a catalyst for renewed interest in the Outdoor Classroom, getting more parents, students, and teachers involved. I know that the learning opportunities are endless, from the remarkable life cycle of a butterfly to the interconnections of all of the living things that we can find outdoors. With any luck, this Outdoor Classroom will help foster a sense of wonder, appreciation, and nature stewardship in all of the students at the school, and maybe some will catch the "bug" and become young naturalists